And Raiola feels the blame his client has received since Italy's World Cup first-round elimination is reason enough as to why he should never have brought him back to the country.

"Winning the 2006 World Cup disguised the real problems in Italian football and today they are doing the same thing with Balotelli. You talk about him and therefore hide the real problems," Raiola told Rai Sport. "It irritated me to see all the blame dumped on to a 23-year-old. It annoyed me and I don’t think this would’ve happened anywhere else in the world.